Cross-border Ecommerce - The Paypers

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Mobile commerce and online shopper behaviour in Germany

Read below more about ecommerce growth, ecommerce sales and cross-border ecommerce in Germany

The German ecommerce market is a strong force, both in Europe and worldwide; accounting for 25% of the European ecommerce turnover, and ranking 5th in the world with online sales volume. Germany also sits among the world leaders in cross-border ecommerce, behind only the US and the UK. Mobile commerce is a significant trend in Germany, with 10% of all online sales being made via a mobile device.
• Total Population
- 82.6 million
• Age Breakdown
- 42% of the population in Germany are between 25 and 54.
• Religion
- Christianity is the dominant religion in Germany, with 34% Protestant and 34% Roman Catholic.
• Urban Population
- 74%
• Internet Penetration
- 86.8%
- 71.1 million
• Mobile Penetration
- 139.9%
• Tablet Penetration
- 24.9%
• Smartphone Penetration
- 62%
• Online Shoppers
- 63.9 million
- 90% of all internet users buy goods or services online
• Ecommerce Sales
- EUR 49.7 billion (goods and digital goods)
• Ecommerce Penetration
- 77.3%
• Ecommerce CAGR (2012 – 2013)
- 39.2%
• Mobile Commerce
- Mobile commerce sales in Germany reached over 10% of the total online retail sales in 2013.
- EUR 4.97 billion
• Mobile OS Platforms
- Android is the preferred mobile operating system in Germany, with the lion’s share of the market at 77.8%.
Cross-border Ecommerce Opportunities
• Germany is the third most active country worldwide both in import and export ecommerce, third to only the US and the UK.
• Estonia has a developed trade route with Germany; the largest proportion of cross-border ecommerce purchases arrive from Germany. As a result, Eesti Post and Deutsche Post DHL have agreed to develop additional services to facilitate and develop cross-border ecommerce.
• German online merchants mostly sell, in number of cross-border sales, to France (5.9 million), Austria (5.5 million), Italy (5 million), Spain (3.9 million) and the Nordics (3.5 million).
• German online shoppers mostly buy cross-border, in number of cross-border sales, from the UK (11.1 million), the US (8.6 million, and China (6.2 million).
Language as a Key Driver
• The official language of Germany is German, spoken by 95% of the 82.6 million population.
• German is spoken in neighbouring Austria (7.5 million people) and Switzerland (5.2 million people) Other European countries with a German-speaking majority include Luxembourg (0.48 million) and Liechtenstein (0.03 million).
• There are German speaking communities in the US (5 million people) and Brazil (1.4 million people).
• Non-native languages include Turkish, spoken by around 1.8% of the population, and Kurdish, by 0.3%.
• German is spoken natively by about 100 million people, making it the most widely spoken native language in the European Union.